Proculus of Pozzuoli

[1] Early documents, including the Atti Puteolani and the Acta s. Proculi were kept at the Archivio della Curia of Pozzuoli before being published for the first time in 1867 in Paris by the Jesuit Bollandist Stilting.

[1] The legend conserved in the Atti Bolognesi states that during the Diocletianic Persecution, Januarius, bishop of Benevento, escaped from his see and traveled to Pozzuoli "incognito."

Januarius, Festus, and Desiderius, on hearing of Sossius’ arrest, took a risk and visited him in prison at the sulphur mines of Pozzuoli, near the volcano of Solfatara.

The authorities discovered that these men were also Christians and they were thrown to the wild beasts as well, but as one modern account states, "[...] when the animals came near the Saints, they fell affectionately at their feet and refused to harm them.

[5] According to a ninth-century document believed by one scholar to be a fictitious account,[1] the bodies of Januarius, Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius were transported in 871 to Reichenau Island by a Swabian knight.

The relics were subject to various inspections throughout the centuries, and in 1964, the bones at Reichenau were determined to be fake and not associated with these Italian martyrs.